A Spoonful of Stiles and Drewe

[burntcopper]

Stiles and Drew, Spoonful of

Happy, happy and very funny. Drewe and Stiles themselves are hysterical and had brilliant patter.

Did stuff from Honk (Ugly Duckling), Peter Pan, Just So, Mary Poppins (Practically Perfect had three Marys singing it - 'who are you?' 'Your predecessor' and 'I'm the touring version'), a few cabaret songs (the one about nouvelle cuisine had everyone in stitches, but that was nothing compared to the one about the diva who can't carry a tune in a bucket, which got a full-on two minute cheer), a couple from musicals they're thinking about, and a bunch from their new one for next year, Soho Cinders (it has a lesbian rickshaw cyclist. Tell me how that's not awesome.).

Utterly brilliant staging - really good choreography and bits of costumes (full points for the ability to make a great duck costume with a headband from accessorise, a pair of marigolds and a feather boa).

Starry cast. Did full happy sigh over Julie Atherton, Daniel Boys is adorable as usual, Leanne Jones (she of Hairspray) was brilliant, Clive Rowe overpowers everyone else on stage, James Gillam (Boq in the London Wicked) was adorable in the Peter Pan numbers (which I didn't think I'd heard, until the last one), Oliver Tompsett was dribblesome and extra points to Dickie (Richard) Dempsey, who I've seen in some stuff but the face was nagging me and then looked at the program and went '...oh my god, he was the original Peter in the BBC Narnia!' So skinny! How the hell did he grow up to be that skinny and wee?** (it's not my fault. You always picture Peter to have grown up to be pretty big and at least slightly muscled due to sword-wielding and being the eldest brother) Helena Blackman was okay, but didn't stand out so much,.

Oh, and we is a bit stunned. Gareth Gates was playing Cinders in the Soho Cinders numbers. First number was a bit blurry, but subsequent ones actual clarity of words and half-decent acting. The uncertain, shy act really works when playing Cinders. Especially for the number about internet chatroom dating between him and Oliver Tompsett (who was playing the prospective ex-olympic swimmer prospective mayoral candidate Martin Prince) and the number him and Leanne Jones were singing about not being able to tell gay from straight these days (with bloody gorgeous chorus choreography of swapping partners).

Managed to *finally* get a Daniel photo at the stage door mugging-fest. Truly wee (if you're the same height as the fangirls, you are *officially* wee) and adorable and grinning - though of course fairyd123 trumps me on the Daniel fangirling. Did a 'dammit, no recording of Sweeney Todd' and he said they didn''t get one either. *Why* can't they do recordings of gala pieces, dammit?. Didn't get a photo with Julie, but she did give a big grin for me asking if we'd get another album at some point. James Gillam got stunned by a slightly obsessed Wicked fangirl (*ten* times. Dear lord. Though made her and the others jealous by telling them I saw Idina twice and that Graham was there on the first night) who'd brought along her birthday cake which had a photo of him on it so she could get a photo with him + cake - he went 'okay, I have to get a photo of this to show my mum'. Got a Richard Dempsey grinning his head off photo.

Of course, I discovered on checking my mp3 player on the tube that I hadn't hit the record button hard enough. BOLLOCKS.

observation : one of the 'stuff we're working on' was a number from Alan Bennett's A Private Function - the only problem is that it was Alan Bennett so I had 'And Thora Hird was there, with fifteen machine guns...' in my head. Bloody Radio 4 and Dead ringers.

**I appear to have been infected by Miranda Richardson in Blackadder. Hitting a patch of saying 'so tiny and wee!'. It's not my fault. All the actors in this performance appear to be shortarses aside from Oliver Tompsett.

ETA : Saw Sarah from IDA in the bar. Very tiny and very pretty.
And managed to compliment someone on their fabulous accessories who I found out is a rather major stylist. :snicker:
Also figured out what as bothering me about the body language of one of the Canadian Marias (one of the ones who was an indie songstress, no idea if she's still in it) - the arms stuck to the side thing. Julie was doing exactly that in one of her Just So songs to help convey that her character had major stage fright and self-doubt issues. Dear Canadian Maria, you need to learn this.

Comments

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

It was a fun night. Didn't come away completely sold on Stiles & Drewe but some of their stuff (especially actually the cabaret pieces) was wonderfully witty. All of the actors needed their mike levels increasing (except for Gareth who was miked to the hilt and Alison Jaier who sung the Diva song who could probably have reached the gods on her own steam)but all acquitted themselves well except for Helena who I thought embarassed herself. Oliver Tompsett looked gorgeous and I am quite taken with the concept of him as a gay Prince Charming. Julie was also great but should have learnt a long time ago as I did that pale skinned brunettes cannot wear pastel pink - fushcia or raspberry darling!

We waited around afterwards and saw various people but decided against the autograph thing. Chatted to Daniel briefly but I've already gone beyond the point of autographs and photos with him now - he recognises me straight away to the extent that asking him to sign something would now be quite odd.

And if you think seeing the show 10 times makes someone a dedicated Wicked fangirl you haven't been frequenting the same sites as me. That's nothing - if I had a spare 250 gb hard drive and an afternoon free i could fill it with audios of Wicked from around the world - so much is out there. The Wicked peeps i know have been 20+ times and are going to Broadway to see Kerry.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a canadian mate of mine can compare pretty much every american cast (touring and Broadway) of Wicked due to seeing it that many times.

How was he? he did seem a bit blinky on the autograph mob. Shouldn't he be used to it now?

Re : Soho Cinders - Anthony Drewe said that he's still writing the book but most of the songs are done, they may have a venue and casting's definitely not finished.

Still trying to figure out if Gareth had any stage presence or just fit that role of shy and unsure well.

Oh, and saw Sarah from IDA in the bar.

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

There's never anyone waiting for Daniel. There was noone at the stage door of Sweeney Todd and 2nd night of Avenue Q the only person waiting for him was me. Ditto the last time we went we were the only people stood there for him (well apart from his cute boyfriend!)

His godawful kittens (who he takes the piss out of as much as we do) show up occasionally en masse but as far as I can see from the various sites and forums the person who has seen him at the most events is probably me - my friends even told Daniel they should get me a Queen Kitty t-shirt (i suggested a Dead Kitty t-shirt instead). I think at least count one of them is going to Faenol to see him - one.

So yes I can understand the befuddlement at the Lee like mob - it's not usually like that for him at all.

I chatted to Sarah at Barrowman's concert - she's lovely.

Gareth didn't have much stage presence but in a smaller theatre I think he'd work quite well.